A surfactant lowers the surface tension between water and soil so the water can wet, lift and hold what it is trying to remove.
Formulation is mostly about matching surfactant class to water hardness and to how much foam the application can tolerate.
What we supply
Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, Sodium Benzenesulfonate, Cremophor Alpicare (COH 40) and Sodium Petroleum Sulfonate.
What we supply
Sodium Lauryl SulphateSodium BenzenesulfonateCremophor Alpicare (COH 40)Sodium Petroleum Sulfonate
Anionic surfactants Sodium lauryl sulphate and sulfonates carry a negative charge, foam readily and lift particulate soil — the backbone of most detergent formulations.
Non-ionic surfactants Uncharged, low-foaming and far less sensitive to water hardness, which is what suits them to machine washing and industrial cleaning where foam is a problem.
Blending the two Most real formulations blend classes. The anionic brings detergency and foam, the non-ionic brings hardness tolerance and grease removal — together they outperform either alone.
Foam is not cleaning Foam is what users read as performance, which is a formulation constraint rather than a functional one — and in a CIP line it is actively unwanted.